O.C.'s Death Row

Larry Welborn of the Orange County Register has this article in a series on inmates on death row from Orange County, California. This is a wonderful public service by the newspaper. In the wide-ranging debates over the death penalty, the crimes these monsters chose to commit and the victims of those crimes are too often forgotten. Here are entries 13 and 14 in the series:

1992

James Marlow, an ex-convict from Kentucky known as "The Folsom
Wolf," and his girlfriend, Cynthia Coffman, who abandoned a husband and
kids, traveled around together randomly killing young girls. He got the
death penalty in 1990 for abducting, raping and strangling Lynel
Murray, 19, of Huntington Beach on Nov. 12, 1986. Coffman, a former
cocktail waitress, was sentenced to life in prison without the
possibility of parole. Both were sentenced to death in San Bernardino
County in 1989 for kidnapping, raping and murdering Corinna D. Novis,
20, of Redlands three days before Murray. Coffman, who had "Property of
the Folsom Wolf" tattooed on her behind, is one of a handful of women on
death row in California. Marlow's case has been affirmed by the
California Supreme Court.

1993

Christian "Rascal" Monterroso shot to death two
convenience-store clerks, Tarsem Singh, 28, and Ashokkumar Patel, 40,
during two robberies four hours apart in Anaheim in November 1991.
Monterroso later confessed to a friend: "I shot two dudes. I hit the
second clerk because he was being an ass. The Circle K clerk didn't
think I was serious, so I shot him, too." His case has been affirmed by
the California Supreme Court.